Saturday, May 31 – Ringway

This afternoon looked like giving my new oilskin cape a chance, but when I got to Four Lane Ends for the clubrun, the drizzle ceased, and the capes were packed away.  We soon got beyond Barton and Stretford, making for Didsbury.  The leader had not turned up, so we chose a route ourselves.  Gaining Wilmslow road, we made for Handforth, where I, who had got in front, missed the club, but it mattered little, for I believe that I am a master of the intricate bylanes in this district.  I joined one such bylane, and amid a perfect picture of colour and rural homesteads, I reached Styal, took a narrow, winding lane, and eventually struck the Styal – Ringway road.

I was soon at Mrs Woodward’s, and was well into my tea with three others who had come a more direct road, before the club arrived.  A party of 100 cadets with 12 officers came in, and later we fled, leaving the place to their tender mercies. We soon reached Castle Mill, then Ashley and the Hale road.  Before Hale, however, we swung left through the suburbs of Bowden, crossed the Chester road, and proceeded along to Dunham Massey.  To me this is an almost unknown ‘bit’, and it seemed very beautiful as we skirted the Dunham estate.  A little further on the road becomes flat and dull for about five winding miles to Sinderland Green.  We, (now five of us) struck a main road.  Taking this road, we traversed it through a town which we afterwards found to be Altrincham!  The main road we found out to be that only too well known Stretford road which, through joining it at a fresh point, we did not recognise!  When we found out, we retraced our steps to Broadheath, and then carried on to Stretford, Barton and home at 8.45.               57 miles